1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data recording apparatus, an initialization method of a recording medium by the image data recording apparatus, and a computer program. According to the present invention, a user is let to specify the number of areas to be produced, the recording capacity of each of those areas, and the kind of the format of each of those areas, thereby initializing the specified areas in desired forms.
Specifically, the present invention relates to an image data recording apparatus such as a digital camera recording photographed digital moving image data and still image data on a recording medium, an initialization method of a recording medium by the image data recording apparatus, and a computer program.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the enlargement of the capacity of a detachable recording medium such as a memory card used for a digital camera and the like has been progressing. It is considerable that, when the enlargement of the capacity of a storage medium has progressed, all of the recording capacity of a memory card cannot be used in case that the memory card is in conformity with the formats of File Allocation Table (FAT) 12 and FAT 16, which are generally used now.
There is FAT 32 as a format capable of treating mass capacity data. However, it is considerable that, when a storage medium is formatted in accordance with FAT 32 for treating the whole recording capacity of a memory card, it becomes impossible to use the storage medium by an existing digital camera.
Accordingly, a method of enabling the use of the whole recording capacity of a memory card while maintaining compatibility with the existing digital camera has been proposed. This method uses a technique of dividing a recording medium into a plurality of areas (partitions) to format each partition in accordance with a format different from each other, which technique is generally performed to a hard disc built in a personal computer and the like. Using this technique, a top partition is formatted in accordance with FAT 12 or FAT 16, which the existing digital camera can recognize, and the other partitions are formatted in accordance with a format such as FAT 32 capable of treating a mass capacity. Consequently, several types of formats are intermingled in one storage medium.
However, in case of adopting this method, it is expectable that a general user would be confused in combination of the recording capacity and the format form of each partition at the initialization of the recording medium.